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Version 102.0 Some email messages are blank. Possible mail corruption.
Hi,
I did an upgrade yesterday from 91 to 102. This morning, I get a few issues. Some email messages are blank. Some have a lot of header and content code displaying that is not related to the email I am opening but from a different email message. Some emails have no HTML content but others are fine.
On my cellular device, I am using the Bluemail app and all messages are there and are fine so it appears to be related to Thunderbird 102 upgrade.
I have used Thunderbird for years and this is an issue I have never seen? I am running an IMAP account.
Thanks,
Mike
Ilungisiwe
All Replies (20)
I am having similar corruption problems with upgrade to 102. I posted as "Thunderbird 102.0 corrupts emails." In my case, not only are different emails messed up, but the Inbox folder has increased by more than 3 GB because Thunderbird keeps downloading more from the server that is just corrupting the folder more. I went back to 91.10.0 as a workaround. I also have the problem seemingly on only one folder, but it is my main email (out of 5 accounts using TB). When I selected properties on the folder, there is a box to Repair Folder. However, clicking it does not do anything.
I am not sure what this is. It needs an expert, I expect, to solve.
Mark Lang said
I am having similar corruption problems with upgrade to 102. I posted as "Thunderbird 102.0 corrupts emails."
Mark's post is https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1378870
I have an update I thought I should mention. On my PC, I downloaded 102 and selected to upgrade from 91. This is the install I mentioned in a post earlier. I also downloaded 102 and did a clean install on my laptop that had never has tbird on it. I copied my profile from my PC. This install seems clean so far with none of the issues like on my PC and the messages that were acting up on the PC are fine on the laptop. Not sure why but for what it's worth, I figured I would make note of this.
Please clarify. Did you do a fully clean install, meaning you installed using a fresh profile and created all your email accounts and plugins from scratch? You seem to imply you installed on the new computer, but copied the profile from your version 91 on the old computer and used it. There certainly could be some issues with the upgrade process, but those are usually carried over if you use an old profile.
Hi Mark,
Sorry if I wasn't clear so here's my situation:
On my desktop computer, I was running v91. I downloaded v102 and installed and the option to upgrade was there during this process - I said yes. This is the computer that had a few issues yesterday. I should note that today, any new messages that have arrived seem fine. I have not seen any more of the strange behaviour.
I did also mention that I performed a clean install on my laptop that had never had the Thunderbird client previously installed. On this laptop, I downloaded v102, did the install and then copied the profile from my desktop computer on to the laptop. This install on the laptop seems very clean, no issues at all, all messages. folders and calendar etc. appear to be fine.
Sorry for any confusion,
Mike
Thanks for the clarification, Mike. However, I am surprised that would work. The new version appears to change the profile, at the very least with a new address book. I would not expect version 102 to successfully open a version 91 profile. Others have reported that they tried to revert to version 91 after upgrading to 102, and they got an error that the profile was incompatible. This suggests the upgrade does modify the profile in some ways. Have you tried your address books?
Hi Mark,
If I remember correctly, the first thing I did was upgrade the v91 installation on my pc to v102. After doing this, I then copied the profile from the pc to import or copy to the new install on my laptop so perhaps any profile adjustments had already taken place on the pc profile during the upgrade process but I'm not really sure how that works?
The address book seems fine and working on both the pc and the laptop so all good.
Also, no other issues at all since the initial issues so everything appears to be working fine.
That is very interesting. When you did the first upgrade to 102, you had some issues. Nevertheless, you copied that upgraded profile to the new computer when you did the new install there. That means any issues in the profile would have been carried over to the new computer. Whatever you did seems to have cleared itself up on both of your computers. Sometimes when you compact folders it clears up the issues of emails not showing up with their corresponding headings.
In my case, when I did the upgrade 2 of my 5 IMAP accounts did not show up correctly. I had to restart Thunderbird. I also had settings changed such as where the sent and drafts are saved in several of my accounts that I had to fix. When I did the compact folders for the first time, it appears to have failed, and corrupted my main Inbox folder. After that, things just compounded every time I tried to compact again or TB tried to sync with the server. There must be some sensitivities with something in the profile or the upgrade process that sometimes causes issues with compacting folders. Perhaps it relates to what order I took in upgrading the plugins, fixing the various changed settings, and compacting my folders. I tend to compact often, so perhaps I compacted before some of the other things were fixed.
I am glad you are working fine now. I am back to version 91 and will wait a while to try the upgrade again. My issue with 102 was causing the corrupted file to grow by GBs of data as long as Thunderbird was running -- not something you live with while looking for a workaround.
I downloaded and installed 102.0.1 and it seems to have fixed the problem for me. Note the first entry in the changelog - https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/102.0.1/releasenotes/
Cheers, -Jerry
Some are still reporting problems when they compact folders even with 102.0.1. Have you tried that?
I let Thunderbird pick when it wants to compact, and I can't recall the last time it compacted, whether it was with 102, or 102.0.1. Will report back after, or if I see any issues.
Cheers, -Jerry
Ilungisiwe
Well, it's screwed up again. I think it's time to find a different email client....
Hi, not sure what's up but I have been fine for a week now which seems odd if you are having issues. Have you tried contacting the support people at all?
I have used Tbird for many years and I am sure whatever is happening, it will be fixed but I'm just a user and not a tech guy so I wish you good luck :)
I'm having the same problems too, how do I roll back to 91.9.1?
I agree with Mike. I believe the Thunderbird team will get this issue. I have used TB for many years with good success.
It may be that, if the profile email folders or associated files were corrupted when you first upgraded to TB 102, then just going to 102.0.1 may not fix the problem. Perhaps someone on the support team can suggest what it will take to fix the corrupted profile. I do know if you delete the .msf files in the profile with TB not running, it will recreate them when you start up the program. That might fix things. However, if the compacting has corrupted the main email folder, it may not be enough.
The best course would be to use a backup of an earlier profile before you had the problems. Because TB 102 changes the profile, as I understand you cannot go back to 91 without restoring the profile created by version 91. I had a backup of my profile before I made the upgrade. I uninstalled TB 102, rebooted, and then installed TB 91.11.0. Then, before I opened TB, I replaced all the files in the profile with the backed up files from version 91. I am now back on the 91 series. Any changes since the backup were synced from the server. You could also uninstall 102 and reinstall the earlier version, but then rebuild your profile from scratch. If you use IMAP, you should be able to create a new profile and sync your emails again from the server(s). That is more work. If you do not have a backup, I don't have a good suggestion other than making a new profile and resyncing. Again, perhaps the TB support team has some ideas. TB knowledge base has information about how to find the profile folder and how to create a new profile. If you cannot find it, I can share more.
Based on the comment from Mark, I guess the most important thing is to make sure you back up your profile before upgrading anything. This sounds obvious but .... I back up my Thunderbird profile once a week using the free Cobian Reflector backup program - it works very well.
If you are not sure where to find your profile folder, go to Thunderbird top right 3 bars> help> more troubleshooting information. On the left side of your screen you will see the profile folder. If you open this folder, go back up 3 levels until you see the THUNDERBIRD folder and copy the whole thing. I suggest you don't try and replace just folders inside this main folder. If you replace the main THUNDERBIRD folder that is in use at the present time with the one that is your backup folder, it should restore completely. Just say yes when asked if you wish to overwrite the existing folder. I have done this many times with success. Just make sure you close Thunderbird before doing this.
OK. Even with 102.0.2 the problem returns after mailbox compaction. Deleting the .MSF files and letting Thunderbird recreate them fixes this.
And I see there's now an update again... From the changelog: fixed - After compacting folders, new downloaded messages were inaccessible
Let's keep our collective fingers crossed...
Ilungisiwe
JerryG said
OK. Even with 102.0.2 the problem returns after mailbox compaction. Deleting the .MSF files and letting Thunderbird recreate them fixes this. And I see there's now an update again... From the changelog: fixed - After compacting folders, new downloaded messages were inaccessible Let's keep our collective fingers crossed...
Indeed, 102.0.2 is known to still have problems. Many of them should however be fixed in 102.0.3.
Please kindly post your results with using 102.0.3, so that we know of there are lingering issues.
Hi, for what it's worth, I thought I would mention what I tried. I had a separate post on this site and I mentioned two things. Some blank messages and some correspondent names that once opened, displayed a completely different subject name and mail text body.
I received a response telling me that this can sometimes happen and to try a folder repair.
My issues all appeared to be in the inbox folder so I went to the menu on the left where all folders are listed, right clicked on the inbox, went to properties and in there I selected the button to 'repair folder'. After I did this, an email that contained the text and subject name from a different message was fixed and displayed correctly. Apparently this may have something to do with a corrupted index file in the folder but it worked for me.
Fingers crossed, I have not seen one strange message or blank message since. This was about 4 days ago.
If you still see this problem with 102, first update to V102.0.3 If Thunderbird will not update reinstall from https://www.thunderbird.net
If you still see issues compact the folders. Right click and select properties and then repair.
If you still have an issue after doing that, perhaps this is time to speak up again. 102.0.3 does have a lot of fixes that should impact this particular symptom. If it is a fix for you can not be known until you apply it.